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No, He’s Not Hitler—Yet. Trumpism is not Fascism—Yet. And while 63 MILLION AMERICANS voted for this guy, that is only 27 Percent of the voting-eligible population. There is plenty of resistance out there to make sure he doesn’t become Hitler and we don’t succumb to neo-fascism. Let’s get to work.

In a live interview with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie, Christopher Wylie, a former employee of British-based company Cambridge Analytica, says the company misused personal Facebook data of some 50 million people to help influence the 2016 presidential election. Wylie says the company met with former Trump campaign manager (and current outside adviser) Corey […]

Marine life is battling an unexpected enemy, lost fishing gear, also known as ghost gear. 705,000 tons of fishing gear are lost in the ocean every year. Mike Neill and his crew are trying to change that.

Do states have a moral right to exclude people from their territory? It might seem obvious that states do have such a right, but Sarah Fine questions this in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can su […]

How do I know I'm not dreaming? This sort of question has puzzled philosophers for thousands of years. Eric Schwitzgebel discusses scepticism and its history with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at D […]

What is a robustly demanding good, and what has that got to do with friendship and love? Find out in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast in which Nigel Warburton interviews Princeton Professor Philip Pettit about this topic.

Philosophers talk about 'knowing how' and 'knowing what'. But what is involved in knowing a person? Katalin Farkas discusses this question with David Edmonds in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University.

Are human beings fundamentally different from the rest of the animal world? Can what we essentially are be captured in a biological or evolutionary description? Roger Scruton discusses the nature of human nature with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

The Hard Problem of consciousness is the difficulty of reconciling experience with materialism. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, in conversation with Nigel Warburton, Anil Seth, a neuroscientist, explains his alternative approach to consciousness,which he labels the 'Real Problem. Anil is a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow.

Why does apparently trivial ritual play such an important part in some ancient Chinese philosophy? Michael Puett, co-author of The Path, explains in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can subscribe to […]

What is Art? That's not an easy question to answer. Some philosophers even think it can't be answered. Aaron Meskin discusses this question on this episode of Aesthetics Bites. Aesthetics Bites is a podcast series of interviews with top thinkers in the philosophy of art. It is a collaboration between the London Aesthetics Forum and Philosophy Bites […]

The process of dying can be horrible for many, but is there anything bad about death itself? The obvious answer is that deprives us of something that we might otherwise have experienced. But that leads to further philosophical issues...Shelly Kagan discusses some of these with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

We certainly disagree about aesthetic judgments in a range of cases. But is anyone right? Is there no disputing about taste? Are all tastes equal? Elisabeth Schellekens Damman discusses disagreement about taste in this episode of Aesthetics Bites. Aesthetics Bites is a podcast series of interviews with top thinkers in the philosophy of art. It is a collabo […]

Cobalt used to be a byproduct of copper mining, used in everyday, boring stuff like tires and magnets. Now it's one of the most important and sought after metals on the periodic table. This has implications for big tech firms like Apple.

Remarks And Asides

In terms of negotiations over the dreaded fiscal non-cliff, we have the following from my why-we-need-Nancy-at-the-table department:

MARTHA RADDATZ: Could you accept a deal that does not include tax rate increases for the wealthy? We’ve seen talk about a possible compromise that would leave rates the same, but cap deductions for high-income earners. Is that something that’s acceptable?

NANCY PELOSI: No.

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The Washington Post’s The Fix summarized an important Republican’s appearance on Meet The Press:

The news here is that a Republican actually “acknowledged” there is no evidence for his belief. Usually, a Democrat has to point out that Republicans have no evidence for what they claim. So, perhaps, Republicans did learn something from the election.

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Allen West, that freaky flat-topped Florida teapartier, talked his way into getting a recount of some votes in St. Lucie County. The result was that his opponent’s lead actually increased by 0.65%. Of course, West still won’t concede the election, presumably because he is more convinced than ever that there exists a conspiracy to keep him out of office.

Now, arithmetic is out to get him.

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For reasons known only to his psychiatrist, Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller fame, actually did a gig on The Celebrity Apprentice 2012, NBC’s vehicle for making a few bucks off Donald Trump’s stupidity. But Jillette can be forgiven for his lapse in judgment because he came up with a perfect description of Donald Trump’s hair:

…as I sat there for hours half listening to Donald carry on, it struck me exactly what his hair looked like. It looks like cotton candy made of piss.

Later in the article, which was sort of an accounting of his experience on the show, Jillette said this about the participants’ decision to appear with Trump:

We’ve chosen to make this whackjob, with the cotton candy piss hair and the birther shit, into someone we want to please.

If Jillette does nothing else noteworthy in his life, he can die a happy man for perfectly describing Donald Trump.

All nations will suffer the effects of a warmer world, but it is the world’s poorest countries that will be hit hardest by food shortages, rising sea levels, cyclones and drought, the World Bank said in a report on climate change.

Now we know why Republicans don’t give a damn about global warming: it will hurt the poor more!

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I pick on my state neighbor, Oklahoma, a lot, mostly because it, and roughly two-thirds of the people who live there, deserve it. But come on Okies! If you are gonna violate the principle of separation of church and state, if you are gonna put down God’s word in granite, if you are gonna erect a monument to an Iron Age fantasy, then at least consult a dictionary:

OKLAHOMA CITY -A new monument at the Oklahoma State Capitol honoring the 10 Commandments was unveiled Thursday morning but Friday, the buzz was all about two mistakes carved into the granite stone.

In the commandment “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy” the word “Sabbath” was misspelled as “Sabbeth.” A second mistake was in the commandment “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant.” The word maidservant was spelled as “maidseruant,” replacing the “v” with a “u.”

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Finally, I don’t have anything amusing to add—the guy has suffered enough, don’t you think?—to this photo of an Indiana man who actually had a Romney-Ryan logo tattooed on his temple. At least he spelled it correctly:

9 Comments

Hmm. Your comment, Duane, about the Oklahoma Ten Commandments misspelling inspired me to revisit those famous strictures, including this one:

You shall not bow down to them or serve them (meaning other gods), for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

For all the reverence in which these ten are held by those who claim to be religious, it is my guess that not one in a hundred would be able to list them all from memory, absent prior mnemonic preparation. I say this because the ten commandments seem antiquated and some don’t seem consistent with other parts of the bible, and especially the one above. God is capable of jealousy? Really? But, so jealous that he would not only punish the offending errant-believer, but his children, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren? Isn’t that a little immature? How is one supposed to feel about God if he sends plagues and other bad luck after you all the time just because Grandpa screwed up?

That’s all I’ve got time for, for now – I need to go get that Tiki-god carving off our wall and chuck it. 🙄

How dare you claim the commandments might not comport with other parts of the Bible. You’d better save that Tiki-god carving to ward off what may be coming your way.

In any case, you brought up a part of the Bible (it’s actually in several places, as I recall) that always bothered me, when I was a believer. I never quite came to terms with the obvious immorality of God punishing innocents for others’ sins, even though that is really the basis of its overall redemptive message: That through Adam all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and therefore all need salvation.

Paul put it this way (Romans 5):

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

The theological logic here is clear: God is a collectivist! Viva socialism!

That God is a socialist would come as a shock to the Rev. Robert Schuller, he of Crystal Cathedral fame. Thinking about this caused me to recall a recent news item remarking on Schuler’s attempts to pry some money out of his bankrupt creation. If Mammon calls, the sin might be something other than original:

The church filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2010, citing $50 million in debt. The trial centers on claims that the family has made over the ministry’s usage of their work and has stalled the closing of the bankruptcy.

Of course, it’s not the Reverend’s nature to be overly concerned with mere earthly matters, or so he says. Must be true – it ain’t easy to lose $50 million dollars doing good. He seemed confused in his testimony regarding this internet thingy on which some of his intellectual property, i.e., advice on how to avoid worry over earthly matters, found itself displayed free of royalties for consumption by the masses. But he seems to have wakened late to the reality of the situation and now comes to the table for his slice of the pie. Probably Adam’s fault.

henrygmorgan

I recall that 4 or 5 years ago, Congressman Westmoreland of Georgia introduced a bill in congress to place a copy of the Ten Commandments in every federal building in the U.S. because all of our laws were based on them, so he said. A short time later, when he accepted an invitation to appear on the Colbert Report (how foolish was that?), Colbert asked him to recite the Ten Commandments. “You want me to name them?” replied Westmoreland. “Yes.” (I’m going to paraphrase his response): Well, let’s see . . . There’s . . . Uh . . .let’s see . …Doesn’t one of them have something to do with murder?”

He couldn’t name a single one. Did this cause him to withdraw his bill? Of course not! I’ve often wondered how many votes his hypocrisy earned him in the next election.